stop hitting yourself why are you hitting yourself

This is absolutely fascinating to me. The cultural discordancies in the above photograph are flat-out symphonic. No kidding, if I were still in school I would change my major to whatever would allow me to write my doctoral thesis on the anthropological mind-bang of this one single jpeg. And be sure that I am including in my slack-jawed gawkery the blood red, MS Paint commentary some self-righteous techno-peasant has overlaid on the orignal screengrab. Sweet lord, where to begin?

First of all, the MS Painter and Sasha Frere-Jones are right. Anyone who thinks MIA’s bird was the most indecent part of the Super Bowl is not a reasonable person. The Super Bowl is a festival of indecency. Its very existence in a world of finite resources and inarguably unequal and unfair wealth distribution, where every opulent act is, by necessity, paid for by the continued and intentional oppression of a permanent underclass, is so far beyond “indecent” it beggars ethical classification. The moral structures so zealously defended by the pudgy, pale anachronisms at the FCC are as alien and as arbitrary to me as the rules of football itself. 

The history of linguistic and gestural (secular) vulgarities in America runs parallel, like a commentary track, to the rise of the middle class from the industrial revolution through the post-war boom. Profanity in English speaking countries has always been more about class than anything else. (though there is some weird sex anxiety in there, too. And that old, weird sex anxiety is the cultural grandmother to the current sex anxiety felt by the MS Painter who would like to suggest that women drawing attention to their vaginas is more vulgar than women drawing attention to their fingers. See! This stuff is interesting!) The move away from common vulgarities was really a move away from commonness. Proper language was a simulation of breeding, education, and distance from the practicalities of the working classes. Not saying “fuck” is an aspiration. And I think it’s this Golden Age mindset, more than any religious dogma, that informs the “morality” of the FCC organism.

Also we have to understand the FCC as a body founded on the idea of “contract”, of binding agreements. From this perspective, MIA’s gesture is certainly the most offensive thing about the picture above. The fertility dancers displaying their ability and willingness to bear and care for children were hired for that purpose, agreed of their own free will (we assume) to perform the task, and fulfilled the job as promised. MIA on the other hand probably signed a contract saying that she would NEVER do EXACTLY what she is doing. MIA is the only person in this photograph who isn’t keeping her word. She lied. She said she would do a certain thing for compensation in the amount she agreed to, then she didn’t do it and kept the money anyway. Regardless of how you feel about women swinging their vagina’s around, or about vulgar hand gestures, you have to agree that the fabric of civilization is founded on the principle that, barring extraordinary circumstances, people should do what they agree to do. Not to mention that the gesture MIA is making, generally taken as “fuck you”, is actually offensive. The imperative ”fuck you” most often means “I don’t care about you.” It’s dehumanizing the recipient, removing them from the automatic social contract created when any two humans share a space, even a virtual one. Can you imagine walking onto the subway and shouting “Fuck you!” to everyone in the car? You can’t because that shit is mean. And it makes hostile and unsafe what was before assumed to be, if not a happy time and place, at least one where people didn’t actively take away your status as a human being worth caring about.

There’s also much to be said about how the editor of the above picture and many other commenting on the phenomenon online contrast how MIA’s gesture was met with derision yet the event’s vacuous and borderline Neolithic depiction of women was met with stupefied, vacant stares and then forgotten.  Very few contrast it with any of the Super Bowl’s other major sins, like knowingly allowing brain damage to it’s players so that many will have the brain of an 80 year old on their 40th birthday, a crime of depth and scope that I would argue is far more “indecent” than having young, attractive people shake their genitals to music.

And now I am late for work. Thanks, MIA.

blakewhitman:

jmdickinson:

Took me a minute to see the captions.

seriously.

(Source: redsuspenders, via digsyfinallyhasa)